Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Fostering Belonging In The Workplace: What Does Commitment Look Like At Interpersonal, Team, And Organizational Levels?, Jody Condit Fagan

Libraries

Researchers describe belonging as “an essential human need” that supports people’s abilities to share, create meaning, participate, and learn with others at work (Filstad et al., 2019, p117). Sense of belonging varies by culture (Cortina et al., 2017) and belonging-related stressors have been shown to be more intense for those who identify with outgroups (Walton & Brady, 2017). Given this context and the impossibility of directly creating belonging, how can people at all levels support an inclusive commitment to fostering belonging as an organizational value? This presentation will define belonging, outline relevant actions and behaviors, and illuminate potential pitfalls.

Did That Help? Harnessing Natural Language Processing To Uncover Characteristics Of Peer Feedback And Their Impacts On Teamwork-Skills Learning., Annamaria V. Wolf

All Dissertations

Peer Evaluation Systems (PESs) allow members of student teams to provide one another with computer-mediated feedback in the form of qualitative, open-ended comments. The current research leverages unsupervised Natural Language Processing (NLP), namely Biterm Topic Modeling (BTM) and sentiment analysis, to uncover latent topics and degree of positivity and negativity expressed in peer feedback, respectively. BTM results revealed a 6-topic model that was reliably replicated over 10 Gibbs initializations 80% of the time. Topics were labeled Timely Communication, Idea Generation, Coordination & Adaptation, Work Quality, Team Support & Focusing, and Work Accountability. Qualitative comparison suggests that these topics demonstrate …

Trust Is Not Enough: Examining The Role Of Distrust In Human-Autonomy Teams, Sydney Begerowski

All Theses

As automation solutions in manufacturing grow more accessible, there are consistent calls to augment capabilities of humans through the use of autonomous agents, leading to human-autonomy teams (HATs). Many constructs from the human-human teaming literatures are being studied in the context of HATs, such as affective emergent states. Among these, trust has been demonstrated to play a critical role in both human teams and HATs, particularly when considering the reliability of the agent performance. However, the HAT literature fails to account for the distinction between trust and distrust. Consequently, this study investigates the effects of both trust and distrust in …

Human Psychology Factors Influencing Agile Team Autonomy In Post-Pandemic Remote Software Organizations, Ravikiran Kalluri

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Agile project management methods are gaining in popularity in the software industry as software development teams are being asked to be adaptive to market needs and resilient to change and uncertainty. With increasing market uncertainty, global competition, and time-to-market pressure, it is becoming a challenge to develop an innovative product and deliver it on-time without the opportunity that comes from team autonomy to experiment and learn from failures in a remote workplace. To resolve this challenge, it is critical to understand the myriad human psychological factors in play that influence Agile team autonomy in a remote work environment.

The role …

Perspective Taking: A Tool For Improving Team Member Relationships And Performance, Mikayla Ann Marcinkowski

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Researchers and practitioners alike are interested in ways to help teams reach their full potential. In the current research, perspective taking is presented and tested as a tool that can help teams build and maintain positive interpersonal relationships and achieve top performance. Further, the current research integrates several conceptualizations of perspective taking to acknowledge that while some people may be more inclined to engage in perspective taking behaviors, there is the potential to train perspective taking as a skill for those who are not. Thus, this research also tests the effectiveness of a perspective taking intervention focused on encouraging the …

Understanding Emergent Team States And Wellness In Small Groups: A Systematic Review​, Simran Dhaliwal

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This poster highlights the beginning stages (introduction, methods) of a systematic review project that looks at the relationship between team emergent states and individual wellbeing in small task-performing groups.

Understanding Teamwork Using Dynamic Network Models, Ashlyn Paige Lowe

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Studying team processes is critical to understanding how teams work to achieve team outcomes. To effectively study team processes, behavioral activities team members enact must be measured with sufficient granularity and intensity. Analyzing the detailed mechanics of team processes requires employing analytical methods sensitive to modeling the series of actions and interactions of team members as they execute taskwork and teamwork over time. Current empirical investigation of team processes lags with respect to intricately measuring and assessing team processes over time. Using dynamic network models, this dissertation sought to understand the behaviors responsible for interaction patterns amongst team members, how …

How Individual Differences And The Use Of Humor Shape Relationships In Teams Over Time, Melissa Vazquez

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Due to its ability to influence social interactions and relationships, humor can play an important role in team dynamics. The aims of this project are to examine how team member individual differences in humor styles relates to the expression of humor over time, and how humor usage shapes relationships between team members. Hypotheses were tested using data from highly interdependent teams working together over an extended period. Results have implications for the selection of team members, and the training and management of unique teams. In all, this research provides validation evidence for the HSQ measure as a predictor of humor …

Utilizing The Radsm Process: Developing An Unobtrusive Measure Of Cohesion, Zachary Lee Rahner

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, verbal indicators produced following the RADSM process were used to code transcript data collected from 62 three-person teams playing a cooperative bridge crew simulator. A training dataset, consisting of 88 mission transcripts, and a testing dataset, consisting of 39 mission transcripts, were created from the data. Multilevel modeling was employed to develop a linear-regression algorithm to predict/measure team task and social cohesion. The findings revealed that task cohesion perceptions are linked to the proportion of speech dedicated to information requests and instructions, whereas social cohesion perceptions are associated with the proportion of speech dedicated to amusing and …

A Computational Cognitive Architecture For Exploring Team Mental Models, Neil Benoit Outland

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Team Mental Models (TMM) are one of the strongest predictors of team behavior and performance. TMM direct team behaviors through the series of tasks they perform over time. Research in the area, although crucial in demonstrating the effect of TMM, has been largely static, failing to articulate specifically how TMM emerge or function in teams over time. This dissertation develops a computational model to explicate the process of TMM emergence and demonstrate necessary factors. First, I explain the core concepts of TMM emergence, including team composition, dyadic interactions, and contextual variables. Second, I develop a process-oriented theory of TMM development …

Cultural Disposition Influences In Workgroups: A Motivational Systems Theory Of Group Involvement Perspective, Verlin B. Hinsz, Ernest Park, Angela K. Y. Leung, Jared Ladbury

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Modern organizations often involve workgroup members who have different cultural heritage. This article provides an examination of how different cultural dimensions (e.g., uncertainty avoidance, individualism–collectivism) influence the ways that workgroups and their members respond to situations that involve threats and rewards. The threats and rewards activate distinct response patterns that are associated with a motivational systems theory of group involvement. Based on this theoretical foundation, a cultural dispositions approach is applied to reveal how culture could impact the ways group members respond (cognitively, affectively, motivationally) to situations that involve varying degrees of threats or rewards. This focus on cultural dispositions …

Identifying As Lesbian, Gay, Or Bisexual At Work: Implications Of Disclosure Within Work Teams, Jesse R. Caylor

Theses and Dissertations

As is the case for members of any stigmatized minority group, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals face heightened adversity within the workplace (Herek, 2009). However, unlike employees with stigmatized identities that are readily apparent (e.g., race, gender), employees who identify as LGB are afforded a unique opportunity to avoid the adversity associated with their stigma altogether by choosing not to identify themselves (e.g., maintain the appearance of being heterosexual). However, despite the potential negative consequences, many LGB employees choose to disclose their sexual orientation to their coworkers and supervisors. Research on the impact of disclosure behaviors on subsequent job …

Proactive Workplace Bullying In Teams: Test Of A Rational And Moral Model Of Aggression, Anthony S. Colaneri

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This study tested part of a recently developed theoretical model of proactive workplace aggression put forth by Dixon, Chang, and Johnson (2015). The model postulates distinct motives underlying why perpetrators will morally justify their aggressive behavior, dependent upon the relative in/out-group status and relative hierarchical status of the target. Participants from Amazon’s MTurk community were shown one of four vignettes that described a team workplace scenario where the participant was presented with the choice to act aggressively toward a coworker in order to help facilitate the team’s goal. All four of the model’s dyadic perpetrator-target relationships were represented, but the …

That's Not Fair! Examining Individual Differences In Perceptions Of Fairness, Hayden Jerney Randolph Woodley

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Within organizations, fairness is an important concept and has received considerable research attention. Some research, interestingly, suggests that individuals differ in their perceptions of equity. Building on this research, four empirical studies were conducted to develop a measure of a new construct (i.e., equity orientation) and examine its predictive validity. In Study 1 (N = 836) and Study 2 (N = 600), the Equity Orientation Scale (EOS) was created and its relations with two popular personality models – the HEXACO and the Dark Tetrad – were examined across self- and peer-ratings. In Study 3 (N = 433) and Study 4 …

Cooperation And Facets Of Psychological Collectivism As Antecedents Of Team Mental Model Similarity, Neal Benoit Outland

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigated the role of facets of trait psychological collectivism (Preference, Reliance, Concern, and Goal-Priority) and the personality trait cooperativeness in the development of Team Mental Models. Team Mental Models (TMMs) are shared representations of a work team’s context that aid a team in directing behaviors and coordinating actions. I utilized Marks, Mathieu, and Zaccaro’s (2001) taxonomy of team processes to explicate and test a model detailing the role of composition in TMM development. Data were collected from 35 teams of 5 individuals who completed a computer simulation in which the team interdependently replicated pictures using blocks. Multiple regression …

The Influence Of Team Prosocial Motivation On Emergent States And Shared Leadership, Tyree David Mitchell

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Despite the growing body of research on shared leadership, relatively little is known about the antecedents of shared leadership. The following study examined the effects of team prosocial motivation on team emergent states (i.e., team empowerment, psychological safety) and shared leadership. Drawing on motivational theories (e.g., self-determination theory), it was hypothesized that team empowerment and psychological safety would mediate the relationship between team prosocial motivation and shared leadership. Also, in line with the social identity and self-categorization perspectives, it was hypothesized that team surface-level diversity (racial diversity, gender diversity, faultline strength) would moderate the effects of team prosocial motivation on …

From Creativity To Team Innovation: Building The Bridge In Organizations, Jonathan Brown

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The outcome of this project is a new model for team innovation. It was created as a result of the need for teams to be better prepared to innovate. The approach of this project was to investigate, clarify, combine, synthesize and finally propose useful ways to accelerate team innovation in organizations. It started with a diagram and evolved into an articulation of each step of the model. This prototype model is called Model for Purposeful Team Innovation. The model is divided in seven steps that include identity, mission, quality, targets for improvement, roadmap, execution, monitoring to assess the maturity and …

The Development Of The Creative Synergy Scale, Amy E. Climer

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This study developed a scale for teams to assess their behaviors related to creative synergy. Creative synergy is the interactions among team members where the collective creative results are greater than the sum of their individual efforts. When a team achieves creative synergy they have the potential to solve difficult problems with innovative solutions leading to positive impacts on our communities, societies, and even our world. This study looked at the internal-process variables of teams to determine what factors impact creative synergy. The research process involved two phases.In Phase 1, a survey was taken by 830 adults who were members …

Generational Diversity Can Enhance Trust Across Boundaries, Michele Williams

Michele Williams

In interorganizational project teams, generational diversity among team members undermines the experience of trust within demographically similar dyads but enhances the experience of trust within demographically dissimilar dyads.

Collective Failure: The Emergence, Consequences, And Management Of Errors In Teams, Bradford S. Bell, Steve W. J. Kozlowski

Bradford S Bell

The goal of the current chapter is to examine the emergence, consequences, and management of errors in teams. We begin by discussing the origin and emergence of errors in teams. We argue that errors in teams can originate at both the individual and collective level and suggest this distinction is important because it has implications for how errors propagate within a team. We then consider the paradoxical effects of errors on team performance and team learning. This discussion highlights the importance of error management in teams so that errors can prompt learning while at the same time mitigating their negative …

Three Conceptual Themes For Future Research On Teams, Bradford S. Bell

Bradford S Bell

[Excerpt] Tannenbaum, Mathieu, Salas, and Cohen (2011) identify three change themes – dynamic composition, technology/distance, and delayering/empowerment – that are affecting the nature of teams and discuss future research directions within each thematic area. They acknowledge that these emerging research needs may require new theories, research methods, and analyses and describe a few specific approaches that may hold promise, but focus their attention largely on describing the substantive issues and questions research should target going forward. We do not dispute that these themes are important – they are garnering substantial research attention (see Bell, 2007; Chen & Tesluk, in press; …

The Influence Of Flow On Standard And Adaptive Performance In Teams, Jennifer N. Baumgartner

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine flow as it relates to different types of performance in teams. Participants (N = 165) in teams of five engaged in an airport simulation that included an unforeseen change during the second session. Flow was expected to be positively correlated with standard and adaptive performance and predict performance along with cognitive ability and personality. Positive affect was expected to mediate the relationship between flow and performance. Flow was positively correlated with the number of aircraft departed under standard conditions, negatively correlated with aircraft departed under adaptive conditions, and positively correlated with subjective …

The Effect Of Online Training On Teams, Ariel Becker

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Many organizations recognize the importance of utilizing teams to accomplish work (Chuboda et al., 2005; Devine et al., 1999; Ilgen, 1999; Martins et al., 2004). As technology has advanced, many of these organizations have recently become more reliant on virtual project work, which allows work teams to communicate across geographical distances (Driskell et al., 2003). Considering the growing prevalence of virtual teams in organizations, more needs to be known about how to facilitate virtual team effectiveness. In addition, the increased use of teams in organizations has identified and created the need for team training (Ilgen, 1999). Creating a training environment …

How Do Teams Become Cohesive? A Meta-Analysis Of Cohesion's Antecedents, Rebecca Grossman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While a wealth of research has deemed cohesion critical for team effectiveness (e.g., Mullen and Copper, 1994; Beal, et al., 2003), less emphasis has been placed on understanding how to get it. Multiple studies do examine cohesion antecedents, but these studies have not yet been integrated in either theoretical or empirical manners. The purpose of this study was thus to begin addressing this gap in the literature. I conducted a series of meta-analyses to identify and explore various antecedents of cohesion, as well as moderators of antecedent-cohesion relationships. Findings revealed a variety of cohesion antecedents. Specifically, team behaviors, emergent states, …

Observing Culture: Differences In U.S.-American And German Team Meeting Behaviors, Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock, Joseph A. Allen, Annika L. Meinecke

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although previous research has theorized about team interaction differences between the German and U.S. cultures, actual behavioral observations of such differences are sparse. This study explores team meetings as a context for examining intercultural differences. We analyzed a total of 5,188 meeting behaviors in German and U.S. student teams. All teams discussed the same task to consensus. Results from behavioral process analyses showed that German teams focused significantly more on problem analysis, whereas U.S. teams focused more on solution production. Moreover, U.S. teams showed significantly more positive socioemotional meeting behavior than German teams. Finally, German teams showed significantly more counteractive …

Shared Leadership In Dangerous Environments: Testing A Model For Military Teams Using Mixed Methods Research, Alex J. Ramthun

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Scholarship

In a field study, the dissertation examined the influence of shared leadership on team performance for 51 military combat teams in a simulated dangerous environment. To simulate the dangerous context, the study employed amilitary tactical urban fighting complex, paintball weapons, role players, and a dynamic combat scenario. Using social network analysis techniques and after controlling for team diversity and combat experience, the study found the density measure of shared leadership to be positively and significantly related to team performance, accounting for 40% of the variance in team performance. This research also found both the centralization measure and density/centralization interaction effect …

Same Fight, Different Player: An Insight Into Culture, Information Sharing, And Team Performance, Cecily Mccoy-Fisher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among culture, information sharing, and performance among culturally-homogeneous NATO Officer teams. Forty-eight teams participated from five countries, namely, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and USA. Teams of four participants were randomly assigned to a role and the task was an interdependent computer-based mission using an adapted version of Neverwinter Nights™ (Bioware, 2003), where they had to communicate among teammates and with non-human players to find weapons caches and other mission objectives. Not one individual had all of the information needed to perform the tasks; thus, they needed to share information with …

Unintentionally Unethical: How Uncivil Leaders Violate Norms And Hurt Group Performance, Christopher Coultas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Incivility is a common form of low-grade aggression that lacks a clear intent to harm, that violates community norms and values for interpersonal conduct, and is often chronic in nature (Andersson & Pearson, 1999; Cortina, Magley, Williams, & Langhout, 2001). Because of its subtleties, it is difficult at times to detect and even more difficult to prevent. However, it is an essential phenomenon to research, due to its ubiquity and negative impact on worker outcomes such as job satisfaction and psychological health (Cortina et al., 2001). Incivility instigated by those in authority may be an even bigger problem, due to …

Effects Of Practice With Imposed Communication Delay On The Coordination And Effectiveness Of Distributed Teams, Megan L. Dove-Steinkamp

Master's Theses

The current study tested whether introduction of audio transmission delays during skill acquisition would benefit the performance effectiveness of distributed teams in a novel transfer context. Two-person university student teams (N=40) performed a simulated firefighting task in 4 practice trials and a novel transfer condition. Intra-team communications were systematically perturbed with closed-loop transmission delays ranging from 2 to 6 seconds. On average, teams were able to improve performance over time despite transmission delay, with significant differences in performance observed between certain groups both over the course and at the end of the experiment: Short (2s blocked) practice delay was associated …

The Effects Of Equity Sensitivity And Teamwork Self-Efficacy On Team Reward Preference, Hayden Jerney Randolph Woodley

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This investigation explored the extent to which individuals’ teamwork self-efficacy moderated the relations between their equity sensitivity orientation and their team reward attitude. Two studies were conducted to examine this relation. The first examined the dimensionality of equity sensitivity, whereas the second examined the relation among the three constructs. Participants (N = 1455) completed a battery of questionnaires through an online testing process that included measures of equity sensitivity, teamwork self-efficacy, and team reward attitudes. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis showed that equity sensitivity is bidimensional, consisting of two factors: input and outcome orientation. Moreover, results showed that teamwork …